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Member LoginPathe 9.5mm Home Movie Camera
In 1922 the Pathe organisation in France released on the market a new film projector which used 9.5mm film. The film had a sprocket hole centred between the frames. The system was designed for home use and there was made available a large library of printed subjects, either for sale or rental.
In 1923, due to the demand, the company released a 9.5mm camera, the Pathe Baby. It was small, with a fixed focus lens, hand cranked and accepted film in a small cassette which held 10 metres of safety base, reversal film. There was no sprocket drive and no loops to worry about. It was effectively the first cine camera for home use.
There was a small sports style viewfinder and, embossed in the leather covering, an instruction ‘ Two turns per second.’
The image quality was good but the camera really needed to be tripod mounted for a steady picture though using a hand held, hand cranked camera today would produce fashionably unsteady pictures.
There was a clockwork motor which could be attached to the camera.
The Pathe Baby became very popular in Europe and the UK and about 300,000 projectors were produced. The gauge lasted until 1960. Dufaycolor film was introduced in 1934 but being subtractive colour made it difficult to project satisfactorily.
Kodachrome was available from 1951. In the last two or three years it became possible to buy 9.5mm film in the Fuji Reversal stocks in the UK.
Over the years there was much development in the cameras and projectors. Other manufacturers made 9.5mm equipment but it was Pathe who led the way. Some of the small clockwork cameras had variable shutters and the larger models had lens turrets.
Economy was the driving force behind this equipment. The matching Baby projector had a built-in device which stopped the frame with the titles on for several seconds and then continued with the projection. The film itself had a little notch cut into it which triggered the device. The early printed films were of excellent quality and some titles were issued in colour. They were made by the stencil process whereby each frame had a stencil cut for each required colour. Optical sound was available in 1938.
The 9.5mm frame size was almost the same as a 16mm frame.
The original Pathe Baby camera and projector are much sought after in the antique markets. Some of the short films in the 1920’s catalogues have interesting titles Banana Cultivation in Colombia; Japan – The Geisha at Home; Tiger Hunting by Aeroplane, Tunisian Potters, The Life of a Fly.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 16